Kota Kinabalu: Sabah Wildlife Department Director Augustine Tuuga said since 2019 until now, a total of 117 crocodiles have been shot dead in the State, with 52 kills recorded in Lahad Datu, followed by Sandakan (28), Kinabatangan (seven), Tawau (11) ) and the West Coast (19).
He said in the same period, the number of crocodiles that died in Lahad Datu was 14, Sandakan (three), Kinabatangan (nine), Tawau (11) and West Coast (five) while five were caught in Lahad Datu, 21 in Tawau and one on the West Coast.
Augustine said based on a three-year survey from 2017 to 2019, a total of 2,886 crocodiles inhabiting the rivers in Sabah were recorded and of that number, 1,386 were found in the Kinabatangan River.
“Most of the reptiles that inhabit the rivers are of the species Crocodylus Porosus (the most aggressive of all species) or better known locally as the Copper Crocodile,” he said.
According to media reports, this year alone there have been several attacks by the man-eating beast, including in Tawau on July 23, where the body of Addi Bangsa, 60, was found in the stomach of a reptile weighing over 800 kilogrammes which was believed to have devoured the victim when he was boarding his boat to catch fish at 4am.
On Oct 24, at Ladang Maisang Sime Darby Sukau in Kinabatangan, the body of a man believed to have been mauled by a crocodile was found about 500 metres from the spot where the victim was reported missing while washing clothes and bathing on the banks of the Kinabatangan River.
Whereas on Sept 23, Yusri Dulpi, 20, went missing after a crocodile snatched him at Mantanani jetty, Kota Belud at about 10.30 pm where the victim and his friend were fishing.
